Russia Car Hire

Russia Car Hire

In Russia you can admire the splendour of imposing historical palaces and cathedrals, explore the mountains, steppes and lakes in the vast landscape or see a prestigious world famous ballet.

Russia Car Hire

By using the booking form below, you can get a free car hire quote or book your car directly with any of the leading car hire suppliers in Russia, which include, Avis, Budget, Enterprise, Europcar, Firefly, Hertz, InterRent, Sixt and others.

Russian Arts and Architecture

In Moscow, the capital city of Russia, Red Square is one of the main squares and is known worldwide, with its important historic buildings. Saint Basil’s Cathedral, with its stunning architecture, was built in the 16th century on the instructions of Ivan the Terrible. The bell tower was added in the 17th century and in the 19th century the cathedral was painted in the glorious colours we can see today. Saint Basil’s Cathedral is now a museum and the public can admire the beautiful religious paintings and icons inside the cathedral. In Lenin’s Mausoleum lies Vladimir Lenin, who founded the Soviet Union. The building is constructivist style, layered into a pyramid and is open to the public who wish to view the leader’s body. You can see the famous Kremlin fortress with its impressive towers and walls. Also, the palaces, churches and cathedrals, along with the imposing Ivan the Great Bell Tower. You can go shopping in the shopping mall, GUM, with its stylish architecture and boutiques. Red Square and the Kremlin are on UNESCO’s list of World Heritage Sites.

Tverskaya Ulitsa is a major street in Moscow with a mixture of little medieval streets, Neoclassical buildings and contemporary architecture. The National Hotel blends neoclassical style with art nouveau and you can also see the huge ten storey State Duma. There are also many theatres to visit in Moscow, including the Chekhov Moscow Art Theatre, Yermolova Theatre and Gorky Moscow Art Theatre. There is abundance of cafes and restaurants in the city that range from fine cuisine to cheap fast food, and many different types of bars for different tastes.

St. Petersburg is another city that combines old with new. There are magnificent palaces and cathedrals together with nightclubs and shops. There are attractive canals in the city and alongside them you can see mansions and majestic neoclassical and Baroque palaces. You can take a boat tour along the canals and admire the many bridges along the way and have lovely views of the St. Petersburg. During the nights of midsummer there is continuous light in the sky, known as the White Nights, and you can enjoy the sights and festivals in the city all night long.

The Hermitage is one of the world’s biggest museums, consisting of several seperate buildings, and houses huge collections of art, some of which is permanently displayed. The collections in these impressive buildings include Paleolithic artefacts, ancient Egyptian artefacts, ancient Greek pottery, Roman sculpture and early Christian mosaics. The Hermitage also houses paintings by a range of masters over the centuries including Titian, Veronese, Michelangelo, Van Dyck, Rembrandt, Poussin, Reynolds, Caspar David Friedrich, Renoir, Monet, Van Gogh and Picasso. At the Mariinsky Theatre you can enjoy the best opera and ballet and the classical music from the prestigious Shostakovich Philharmonia. There are also other musical music venues around the city catering for all tastes ranging from jazz to pop.

The Russian Landscape

The Ural Mountain range and the region surrounding them has stunning scenery to explore. There are great areas of forests in the region and also rocky steppes, together with meadow steppes covered with an abundance of plants and flowers. The various forests areas include cedar, fir, pine, oak, elm and maple trees. In the northern forests you can see Siberian animals that include brown bears, elk, wolves and lynx. In the mid Ural region you can see pine marten and sable.

The south ural region has polecats and badgers. There are also many birds such as grouse, nutcrackers and capercaillie and kestrels.

Within the Ural region, in the Muradymovskoe Gorge natural park, there are many caves in the valley where you can admire their different formations, their waters and wildlife. The sheer cliffs in the area are an imposing sight and in Pigeon grotto you can see the cave pigeons and bats. There are lovely lakes in the region with deep, clear water, including Lake Turgoyak. Here you can visit the Island of Faith where there are ancient megaliths inlcuding Paleolithic monuments. Lake Aushkul in the south of the Ural area has jasper pebbles on its shores and you can fish and swim here.

The Urals also have many rivers for rafting, including the attractive Vishera River. Also, you can raft down the calm currents of the Chusovaya River and enjoy the landscape as you go along. The waters of the Belaya River are stronger and you can raft around large boulders and see the Capova Cave, where they discovered a gallery of cave paintings which is a mile in length, the paintings date back to 12,500 BC and include images of mammoths, horses and bison among others. There are also many places in the region where you can mountain bike, hike, horse ride and climb in the varied and breathtaking surroundings.

Russian Cuisine

Soup is very popular and traditional in Russia, and there are various types including cold soups like tyurya, shchi which is made with cabbage, rassolnik which is made from meat broth, and any number of others made with, noodles, grains and fish.

Pelmeni is a type of dumpling, being a dough filled with minced beef, pork or lamb, or a mixture of all of them, together with garlic and onions. Kholodets is chopped pork or veal, which have been jellied, together with onions, carrots and spices. It is often eaten with mustard or horseradish. Kotlety is also popular, being fried meatballs of pork and beef. Shashlik is similar to a shish kebab and very popular in Russia. Pirozhki are pies filled with various fillings such as boiled meat and onions, fish with boiled eggs and rice, potatoes and onions and rice with boiled eggs.

Popular desserts include vatrushka which is a cake that has cottage cheese in it and can also include raisins or fruit. Favourite alcoholic drinks in Russia include Vodka, medovukha and beer, popular non-alcoholic drinks are tea, and mors which is fruit juice and water.

Russia is a vast country to explore, whether you are touring Red Square and the Kremlin, fishing in a beautiful lake by the mountains or enjoying a excellent classical concert, there is a great diversity of things to do.